I rode in the NYC Century yesterday after being reminded about it by my friend. I agreed to join her on her only ride of the year, and with my Woodrup, I set off on MetroNorth from Poughkeepsie. We woke up on time, but the tube patch I had applied to her tube the night before either didn't work or there was another hole. A quick tube change was in order because I couldn't find an obvious leak, and yes, we needed to get going. At the subway, the trains didn't seem to be awake yet, and we arrived nearly 1 hour late. We started riding at 7ish with the 75 mile group, and knowing that the rain was coming, we accepted the fact that this may be all we could do anyhow.

It took a few intersections to watch how other cyclists dealt with the traffic, but after a couple miles, I got comfortable with the necessary level of assertiveness that was needed. As the day went on and more traffic was on the road, I felt very comfortable riding here...maybe even more so than here in the "mini" city I live in.

Riding over the Brooklyn Bridge was AMAZING, and definitely my favorite part of the ride. I would love to go back and walk it to enjoy it more. I tried to stop and take pictures, but it was a cluster of people, and apparently wasn't a great idea.

Riding past Coney Island was a mix of smells, one minute, sewage, and the next, hotdogs. In Queens, we rode by the beach with winds so strong that I could feel myself getting blown over. We stopped for a much needed Falafel special in an Islamic neighborhood, and got back on the bikes. At about mile 70, there was a split in the road: 75 miles straight, 100 miles Right.

We debated shortly, and went in for the kill. At about 5 miles in, it starts to rain. Lightly at first like a mist, but then the mist got heavier. Luckily I had my rain jacket and full fenders, her, not so much. It's 60ļ, raining, and very chilly. We pick our way through the Bronx, and then nearly at the zoo, I feel the unmistakable rim and pavement connection: flat tire.

I had been secretly hoping that this wouldn't happen, as throughout the whole ride, the flat tire was a common theme. It was raining hard now, and I hoped for the best. I pumped it up as hard as I could, reasoning with myself that it could be a slow leak, and I could make it the rest of the ride. No dice. Ten minutes later, flat again. Still raining, I pump it up again. Five minutes later, flat again. This time though, I had the comfort of an underpass. I found the three holes, but the tube was soaking wet and I didn't have any dry absorbent cloth to dry it off with. The patch wasn't adhering with confidence, so I had to bite the bullet, and go back to the dry tube I had patched for her bike the night before.

My hands are cold and black with the filth of the road, but I feel the inside of the tire for any objects. I spread some more glue on the patch as best as I could, hoping to seal up a presumably faulty glue job. I pump it back up, and it's doing the trick!

Three miles before the end of the ride, it flats again. We have been on the bikes much longer than expected, my attention span for the ride is slumping, and it's getting dark. As I'm pumping it up with no unnecessary stress, the valve rips off. The cherry on the sundae. The patches aren't sticking, our tubes are dead, and did I mention we're cold and it's getting dark?

We decide to walk to Central Park or the subway, whatever we came to first. Three hundred feet into our trek, I look down, and see a tube and a banana lying on the side of the road. The banana was definitely from a rest stop on todays ride, and reasoning that it hadn't been eaten, the tube that was with it may have very well fell out of someones bag. Lets do this again. Still, no obvious sharp objects in the tire, I mount it back on, and pump up the tube I found in the street.

Success! It's still dark, and the bright pink paint arrows are very hard to see with the glare and low light. We're picking our way through traffic up the final hills, and we somehow ended up in Riverside Park, about 10 or so blocks away from where we needed to finish.

We find our way back to Central Park. The tables are packed up, and the food people are loading the final boxes of fruit into the trucks. After all of that, and I don't get my t-shirt! ArggggggHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhh.

We make our way to the subway at 110th, and as I lean my bike up against a beam, the tire lets out a violent hiss, and it flats again. Sigh, no matter, we're not riding any more today.

It was a fantastic adventure, a great ride, and great company with an old friend. Here are a few cell phone pictures I managed to snap. Usually, with rides, I stop and take some decent pictures, but not so with this one due to weather, time, daylight, and crowd constraints.

Verazzano Bridge:

Astoria Park in Brooklyn:

Holy Cow Playground in Queens:

This woman got run over by a bike! Those are tire marks across her back, and a nasty bruise on her left arm. Her right arm had a couple of bandages from the same incident. I was so astonished at this, I had to document it:

In the Subway at the end of the ride. At the 110th St. Station watching the rats and starting my journey back to Grand Central:

Wow - this thread has sunk down to page 8. I'm probably going to give up looking for it, but it was a nice sticky while it lasted.

Anyhow - I drove out to Mammoth Lakes this past weekend for my yearly participation in the High Sierra Fall Century. I've done this ride enough times that, while I'm certainly not bored with the scenery, I don't really feel a compelling need to ride the route as prescribed. So, this year we sort of made up our own route using the official route but changing our start and finish. We stashed a car in Bishop about 45 miles south of the ride start, and started our ride about 11 miles north of the ride start (the condo we were staying in). Partway up HWY 395, we summited Deadman and then took our second route deviation through the June Lake Loop.

We rejoined the ride route at the HWY 120/395 junction, followed it all the way to the Benton Hot Springs junction, and then deviated from the route for the 3rd and last time to scoot down HWY 6 to Bishop and the car.

~102 miles on the day, with maybe 4500 or so feet of climbing. A pretty robust headwind combined with a few double digit rollers made for an interesting time, but when it was all said and done it was a wonderful day out in spectacular scenery, with more than passable companionship.

Some assorted pics:

Fishermen on June Lake, with Carson Peak reflected in the water:

The road going around Grant Lake:

Clash of The Titans:

Descending out of June Lake Loop, toward 395 and Mono Lake:

HWY 120, skirting Mono Lake and headed east to cross that far range:

Rolling on fresh blacktop:

Crossing Big Sand Flat, headed toward Sagehen Summit:

Descending Hwy 6 into Chalfant:

Let's not forget the date - flag flying at half-mast in Chalfant in remembrance those murdered on 9/11:

Driving back to the condo apres-ride. Sunset over the Ritter Range:

__________________
"Love is not the dying moan of a distant violin, itís the triumphant twang of a bedspring."

That's Astoria Park in Queens. A nice shot of the Hells Gate Bridge! During the NYC 5-Boro Bike Tour, this Park was the designated lunch stop. There used to be a criterium race around the park too.
Thanks for sharing your big adventure. How serendipitous of the banana and tube! And that pic of the woman's arm brought back memories of my pal getting hit by a cab on Queens Blvd. and having his left arm ran over similarly. It left tire marks across his upper arm! He was more concerned for his Raleigh!

BBM, I'm jealous of those long stretches of road, nicely paved, with not a car in sight.

To avoid the cars on 9/11, I went for my first ride on the Chief Ladiga - Silver Comet (partially) rails-to-trails project. Rode from the AL end in Weaver to Rockmart, GA and back ~ 115mi. Our designated photographer hasn't posted any pics yet, but maybe I'll be back to add a few. It was great to be able to ride for long stretches without even having to think about traffic.

Yesterday Sonja, Bjorn and I rode up in the mountains from town, taking a dirt road that climb from 4000' to 8000' in 16 miles. Then, after some scenic, not too steep wandering we finally hooked up with a smoothly paved descent right back to the start.

To make this post C&V eligible Sonja rode her 1976 Gazelle Champion Mondial with the 650a wheel conversion. She only had to walk through a couple of rough spots, and off course smoked us MTB'ers on the 13% paved downhill ride.

Robbie - hope you didn't get banged up too bad! At least you saved the bike, that's the important thing. Skin grows back, but Y-Foil's are few and far between.

Sunday I took a spin with Bikingshearer. We kind of did a free-form thing - he showed up at my door and we took off without anything in particular in mind. 41 miles and three hours later we were back home. Riding, fooling around, chatting up the local fauna as encountered, and taking a particularly refreshing stop at 7-11 for a Slurpee in 100 degree heat.

I had been neglecting the Cinelli of late, so that's the steed I chose for the day:

__________________
"Love is not the dying moan of a distant violin, itís the triumphant twang of a bedspring."

Robbie - hope you didn't get banged up too bad! At least you saved the bike, that's the important thing. Skin grows back, but Y-Foil's are few and far between.

Sunday I took a spin with Bikingshearer. We kind of did a free-form thing - he showed up at my door and we took off without anything in particular in mind. 41 miles and three hours later we were back home. Riding, fooling around, chatting up the local fauna as encountered, and taking a particularly refreshing stop at 7-11 for a Slurpee in 100 degree heat.

I had been neglecting the Cinelli of late, so that's the steed I chose for the day:

Glad you saw fit to pay attention to the Italian girls.... They get a little cranky when ignored....
I'l be back on the road soon; almost rode with Ex Pres yesterday, but the weather and his schedule killed it.

I told my wife the road rash was rug burn.
Somehow, it wasn't funny to her.....

I felt restless and unfocused this morning, so after taking our son to school I decided to go for a ride. The fog had moved in over night, accompanied by a light drizzle and a gentle breeze -- perfect weather for an easy, somewhat aimless ride. I managed to get in about 20 miles just wandering around the peninsula, with the only relatively strenuous stretch being the road home. Some pics:

A few friends and I decided to go for lunch and to make it interesting we decided on an 80km out and back to a small village north of here... we barely worked up an appetite on the way out as we were treated to a really stiff tailwind that allowed us to idle in the low 30's.

Since we were going to a little French village I took my old French bike, my 1957 PLX8 and she performed beautifully on the ride out and did her share of pulling on the way back.

This little country store has been here for 100 - 115 years... no one is sure of it was built in 1895 or 1901 and the interior does not seem to have changed much in the last 100 years.

Quite a contrast between my old Peugeot with her 8 speed and my freind's new Surly LHT...

My friends were asking about my odd dťrailleur and were even more impressed that I can shift that Simplex Competition rod shifter with the ease that I do... as it does look suicidal.

Our destination... take note of that flag as it gives one an idea of how fierce the wind was.

The grande old dame... 53 years old and she probably has less km on her than my friend's Surly. All in all I put 100km on her today so she could earn her small C and every bit of the ride was wonderful.

Did a warm up for tomorrow's Tour de Scottsdale. I have not ridden that much this Summer back in MI, too busy. I have ridden 3 straight days here in AZ. Today was with my good friend, b21. We did an out and back to Seven Springs. Just about 22 miles, with 1525' of climbing, the steepest being 15.6%. b21 had a personal best on this ride today.

I only have a couple of pictures. There were no cars whatsoever once we passed the Bartlett Lake turnoff, no bikes either, for that matter.

The top of the road, where it turns to dirt. Our turn around point. Looking back where we came from.

Went for a ride today with three other bikeforums members. We started right after the bike swap at the Trexlertown Velodrome and took a ride through the lovely Lehigh Valley scenery in Lehigh County, PA. Thank you for hosting the ride, RobE30!

Today I rode to Seven Springs once again, as a cool down to the Tour de Scottsdale. I rode with Hal, a very fast racer from the Boston area. He was on his Carl Strong Ti bike, which Carl named, the Halrod. We actually got rained on for a bit on the trip down. Traffic sucked.

[QUOTE=jan nikolajsen;11529806]Yesterday Sonja, Bjorn and I rode up in the mountains from town, taking a dirt road that climb from 4000' to 8000' in 16 miles. Then, after some scenic, not too steep wandering we finally hooked up with a smoothly paved descent right back to the start.

To make this post C&V eligible Sonja rode her 1976 Gazelle Champion Mondial with the 650a wheel conversion. She only had to walk through a couple of rough spots, and off course smoked us MTB'ers on the 13% paved downhill ride.

Jan, unbelievable weather going on out here apparently. I'm temporarily in Pocatello, ID. Sonja's bike is the set-up I'm looking to build. Although the weather seems to be changing quickly. Maybe I should be looking for a MTB. Anyway, while your out there, maybe you could find my long lost cousin Kristin Horn. That's not here name know, but she married a newspaper guy and last I heard, lived in Moab. Nice area, maybe I should move here too.

Jan, That is one of my favorite rides, it's not long, 22 miles or so, 1500'+ climbing with some 15%+ climbs, but if you see two cars, that's a lot. 5 tight hairpins and a 40 mph downhill that ends at a hairpin into a climb that tops at 15.6%. The climb makes you want to carry as much speed through the hairpin as you dare. The last 6-7 miles back are all downhill at 2-3%, fun times to sprint with your buddies.